Wednesday, January 18 2006 15:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Tokyo: Favouring stronger economic ties with Japan, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today (Jan 18,2006) hoped that New Delhi will sign an economic cooperation agreement with Tokyo before concluding a similar pact with China.

Chidambaram, who arrived here yesterday on a four-day visit, told reporters here that his country wanted to increase economic ties with Japan.

"We are in talks with Japan and China for economic cooperation agreements. I don't know whether the India-China agreement will be signed first or the India-Japan agreement with be signed first. But I do hope that it is the India-Japan agreement," he was quoted as saying in Kyodo news agency.

Chidambaram also said he expected India's economy to keep logging robust growth in the coming years, lifting per-capita gross domestic product to above $1,000 by 2015 from the current $700 and providing a lucrative market for Japan.

The Indian economy expanded by 8.5 percent in 2003-2004 and 7.0 percent in 2004-2005, and that he expects a higher growth rate in 2005-2006, citing strong growth of manufacturers along with the service sector.

In reply to a question, he acknowledged that China had a head-start on India in terms of growth but "We will catch up".

Admitting that agriculture sector needs improvement, he said, "Our problem in agriculture is that we have a large population dependent on a finite extent of land so that we have to wean the farm labourers into manufacturing and into services".